15 Apps That Can Help You Maintain Your Sobriety
Sobriety means different things to different people. For some people, sobriety is a short-term endeavor to improve their health. Dry January, Sober September, alcohol-free challenges, and "sober-curiosity" have gained popularity in the past few years as people have shared their experiences with short periods of sobriety on social media. People who have healthy relationships with alcohol or recreational drugs like marijuana often find that they feel better after a short break, and they can resume normal use after their sober-curious experience.
But to many people who've struggled with substance use disorder, sobriety means total abstinence from drugs and alcohol for the long term. As clinical psychologist Emily Guarnotta writes in GoodRx Health, alcoholics and addicts in recovery adopt sobriety as a lifestyle, not simply an avoidance of drugs and alcohol. For these folks, learning to live life without abusing substances can be incredibly difficult. Substance use is pervasive in the U.S., especially as marijuana is legalized in more states, and avoiding them can feel impossible. But in the age of "there's an app for that," accessing support and strategies that can help people stay sober is easier than ever.
Whether you're trying out sobriety for a month or two or striving to stay sober indefinitely, these apps can give you all the tools you need to succeed. Each has its own approach to sobriety, so you're sure to find one that works for you.
I Am Sober
The I Am Sober app is, by far, the most popular sobriety app currently available, with over 100,000 reviews on the Apple App Store and an impressive 4.9 star rating.
Research published in the "Journal of Psychoactive Drugs" has shown that the most important factors in staying sober, for the short or long term, are social support, community, and an understanding of the negative impacts of substance use.
The I Am Sober app hits on all of these essential points. The app connects sober folks through a social media style page, group chats, and individual messaging. People can read about others' experiences with sobriety, find out what's worked for others, and reach out for direct support.
The app's features also highlight the negative impacts of substance use in a few key ways. First, the app prompts users to write down all the reasons they want to stay sober, which often includes avoiding the negative consequences of substance use, and review those reasons regularly. The app is also packed with articles about substance use so users can learn how it impacts their social, emotional, and physical health. The app even shows people how much money they've saved by not buying alcohol, highlighting the financial impacts of substance use.
The I Am Sober app also connects people who want to stay sober with accountability, motivation, and all the information they need to succeed. So, it's not hard to see why the app is so well-loved by its users.
Reframe
One of the most difficult parts of staying sober is dealing with the urges to drink or use drugs, which are sometimes so strong that they border on obsessive. The Reframe app focuses on interrupting those urges and redirecting that energy to healthy coping mechanisms. The app's creators Ziyi Gao and Vedant Pradeep told their alma mater, Georgia Tech, that their research for the app revealed that obsessive urges typically last for about 20 minutes. So, the key to not engaging in obsessive behavior is waiting out the urge, because it will eventually pass.
Of course, this feels impossible when someone is in the middle of an obsessive urge. Hence the development of an app that prompted people to interrupt their urge to engage in obsessive behavior and wait out the crucial 20-minute window.
When someone has the urge to use, they can open up the Reframe app and find several activities that can keep them busy until the urge passes. They can choose to play a game, journal about their feelings, read an article about addiction, read a daily motivation, chat with another addict in recovery, do a guided meditation, or attend a virtual support group meeting. The act of engaging with recovery resources at the moment when the craving is strongest teaches the user to let the urge to use pass without acting on it.
And it's proven incredibly effective. The app has over 2.1 million downloads, nearly 14,000 reviews, and a 4.8-star rating.
NoMo
At first glance, NoMo looks like a simple sobriety tracking clock. Users record whether or not they drank or used each day and build up "streaks" of sober days. However, there's much more to the app than just a sobriety clock. The clock portion of the app can also be configured to show users estimates of how much money they've saved and how many empty calories they've skipped out on by staying sober, which adds tangible incentives to staying sober.
And once users navigate past the sobriety clock, they'll find other features that make this app so useful for maintaining sobriety. A journaling tool allows users to record their thoughts and feelings, which can be used to work through difficult circumstances, reflect on their reasons for staying sober, or document how sobriety is impacting their life. The Encourage and Messaging functions allow users to connect with other sober people who can give them a boost or advice. The Refocus section offers mini-games and interactive exercises that users can engage with when they feel like drinking or using. The NoMo app also has a feature that connects people with an accountability partner — someone they can check in with on a regular basis to help them stay on track.
Though the NoMo app is simpler than a lot of the other apps on this list, with fewer bells and whistles, it's packed with powerful, effective tools to help its users stay sober.
LOOSID
The slogan for the LOOSID app — "Sobriety Is Not The End Of Fun. It's Only The Beginning..." — makes its mission abundantly clear. LOOSID is all about helping sober people find the fun in staying sober. And that mission is a personal one for co-founder MJ Gottlieb. He told Forbes that as an addict in recovery, he wants to show other people in recovery that staying sober doesn't have to be boring and that they can enjoy everything they loved before they got sober without drinking or using.
The app gives users "Boozeless Guides," that clue them in on which bars serve the best mocktails, which venues are sober-friendly, and local sober events. The guides also include tried-and-true tips for clubbing, going to concerts, and meeting up with friends at a bar without drinking or using. LOOSID is also one of the only dating apps where sober folks don't have to come up with an excuse for why they don't want to go out for a drink.
But the app isn't just about partying or hooking up sober. It's also packed with tools to help its users stay sober including a sobriety clock, daily motivations, articles aimed at specific struggles like how to fight the urge to drink, and community forums where users can ask for support and advice as well as read others' sobriety stories.
LOOSID offers the perfect blend of fun and practicality to folks who want a full, joy-filled sober life.
Sober Grid
Unlike other sobriety apps, Sober Grid isn't really about tracking sobriety, even though it does have a sobriety counter and a daily check-in function. The app is all about the idea that everyone needs community to maintain sobriety. Sober Grid is kind of like sober Facebook. There's a newsfeed feature where people can update their status and see other people's posts. Users can like and comment on each other's posts to provide support and build friendships. When someone needs immediate support, they can press the "Burning Desire" button, which takes its name from 12-step jargon, and people currently using the app will see that someone needs help. Anybody using the app can respond directly to that user, at the moment, and offer support.
Sober Grid also lets sober people connect in real life. Users who opt to share their location with the app will show up in the "Grid" section. When someone checks "The Grid," they see the profiles of Sober Grid users currently in their area. They can click on the profile of anyone in "The Grid" and send them a message, maybe with an invite to grab a coffee.
For those who need some help staying sober, the app offers one-on-one peer recovery coaching. It pairs users with people in long-term recovery who can chat with them at any time and provide individualized advice. Sober Grid is an on-demand reminder that no one is ever alone in their sobriety journey.
Sober Sidekick
The Sober Sidekick app wants to help people write their "comeback stories." That's because the app is a chapter in co-founder Chris Thompson's comeback story. Thompson told local news outlet Talk Business & Politics that the story of his addiction ended with several episodes of severe withdrawals and waking up in places he didn't remember going. His comeback story started when he got sober in 2018 and has continued with the development of the Sober Sidekick app.
In his own sobriety journey, Thompson learned that connection was the key to staying sober, so he wanted his app to provide that crucial connection as soon as someone needed it, every time they needed it.
Sober Sidekick is best described as a social media-style platform where people post about their sobriety journeys. All posts are anonymous so users don't have to worry about getting vulnerable, and users are rewarded for giving each other words of encouragement and advice. The active, enormous community means that someone is always available to connect. When users connect via posts, they can also message each other to make a personal, individual connection. The app also has a button that connects users to a Zoom support group, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Though connecting with sober friends is the main function of Sobriety Sidekick, it also has tools to help its users stay sober, like a sobriety clock and daily motivations.
Sober Time
Sober Time provides a beautiful, customizable sobriety counter that displays accumulated sober time down to the second. Users can choose from a variety of background photos to personalize the counter page. The app also shows users how much money they've saved since they quit. All this data gets compiled into easy-to-read charts and graphs so users can visually track their progress.
Through the app's goals feature, users can choose from pre-selected sobriety-related goals or create their own custom goals. They can record progress toward their goals, see what they still have to do, and celebrate each time they complete a goal.
To help people stay motivated, the app offers daily motivational quotes and an active sober community. Users can browse the community forum to read people's sober stories, get advice, and find the support they need. They can also make posts of their own to connect with other sober folks.
For those who want a streamlined sobriety app with just the essentials, the Sober Time app is a perfect choice.
Drinker's Helper
The Drinker's Helper app is a treasure trove of addiction information. Though it offers a lot of the same features as other sobriety apps — a sobriety counter, goal-setting features, and a community forum — what really sets this app apart is its skill-building features. The app doesn't just help people track their sobriety and connect with the sober community, it also helps them learn how to stay sober. Drinker's Helper offers quizzes that help users determine if their drinking habits are normal, courses on the science behind addiction, interactive lessons on how to stay sober, and comprehensive data analysis that allows users to understand their own drinking patterns.
In addition to tracking sober time and goals, Drinker's Helper allows users to record their cravings and what happened right before that craving so users can start to understand their triggers. The app's journaling features provide users with places to write about why their sobriety is important to them, the ways drinking has impacted their lives, and how living sober has improved their lives.
Perhaps the most innovative feature of Drinker's Helper is the chat-based skill-building exercises. Users can interact with a chatbot that guides them through difficult situations, offering in-the-moment tips and tricks. And if the chatbot isn't enough, the app connects users with a personalized virtual support group with members pre-selected based on their common drinking habits.
Drinker's Helper is the app for anyone who wants practical sobriety support at their fingertips.
SoberTool
Developed by a Harvard-educated addiction specialist, SoberTool is another app that helps build sobriety skills. SoberTool's main focus is relapse prevention. The moment that someone wants to drink or use, they can pull up the app and get immediate help. As soon as they open the app, they'll get a message aimed at relapse prevention, which acts as an interruption to the immediate urge.
Next, users are presented with a list of questions about situations they might be struggling with at the moment. Users can choose a question that relates to the specific situation they're dealing with, then they're presented with a quick lesson that answers that question. If none of the questions quite fit, people can use the app's search function to find lessons related to their current situation. Essentially, the app gives people something to do so they don't act on the urge to drink or use.
SoberTool also has many of the standard sobriety app features. It tracks sober time and money saved, sends daily motivational messages via push notifications, and awards badges for sober milestones. There's also a community forum so users can reach out when they need support.
SoberTool is an excellent app for people struggling with the urge to drink and use who need practical, immediate tools for staying sober.
Sunnyside
Some people aren't ready for total abstinence from drugs and alcohol, and that's okay! That's where the Sunnyside app comes in. The majority of sobriety apps focus on maintaining continuous sobriety, racking up streaks of days without any drugs or alcohol. But Sunnyside uses evidence-based mindfulness practices to help people gradually reduce how much they're drinking. And the end goal doesn't have to be abstinence. Sunnyside also supports people who just want to drink or use a bit less.
The app is organized around the user's goals for cutting back. Users start by entering their high-level goals, how much they're currently drinking, and a bit about themselves. Based on that information, Sunnyside creates a personalized plan that reduces the number of weekly drinks by a small number. Each week, the plan cuts out a few more drinks until the user reaches their goal — either a certain number of drinks per week or total abstinence.
Users record their drinks in the plan each week and track their progress toward their goals. Sunnyside also prompts users to record their moods, sleep, and energy levels so they can start to see how cutting back on alcohol is positively impacting their lives.
To support the app's users in their goals, Sunnyside offers a chat function that connects them with a live coach and lessons about addiction. This app is ideal for those who want to change their relationship with alcohol, even if they're not ready to stay sober.
The Phoenix
Scott Strode hadn't yet found a way out of the agony of addiction when his friends dragged him to a boxing gym. He told USA Today that boxing helped rebuild his self-esteem and self-worth, which gave him a glimmer of hope. Soon, Strode started climbing, and his first summit changed his life. The sense of accomplishment and pride that came with each of his athletic achievements gave him the motivation he needed to finally get sober.
Nearly a decade later, Strode started The Phoenix, a sober fitness community. The Phoenix started with a single gym and pop-up fitness classes, free to anyone with 48 hours of sobriety. From there, the community expanded across the country with gyms in more than 20 states and classes in more than 50 cities.
In 2020, The Phoenix launched an app that made their fitness community accessible to anyone, anywhere. The app includes live-streamed classes as well as an extensive library of on-demand classes. Users can take a virtual class with hundreds of other community members or take a class on their own time with a sober fitness coach.
Research has shown that regular exercise is important to maintaining sobriety because of the mental health benefits it provides, and that group fitness classes are particularly effective because they provide community and accountability. The Phoenix app is the perfect way for sober folks to leverage the sobriety-enhancing benefits of a fitness community without having to leave their living rooms.
Reflectly
Many people use substances specifically to numb their uncomfortable feelings. When they finally stop drinking or using, years of pent-up emotions come flooding back. This experience can cause intense distress, which can put people at risk of relapsing.
One of the practices that the American Addiction Centers suggests for managing this deluge of emotions is getting started on journaling. Writing helps people process what they're feeling and get all those emotions out so they're not constantly building up. Regular mood tracking in a journal is also beneficial. Over time, newly sober folks can see how their mood changes over time, how their feelings impact their desire to drink or use, and which situations leave them craving their substance of choice.
The Reflectly app gives people a way to journal and track their moods on their phones. Since everyone has their phone pretty much all the time, Reflectly is an easy way to start a journaling practice, especially because it provides smart journal prompts. Once you track your mood, Reflectly gives you a personalized journal prompt based on where you're at at the moment. The app also guides users through a set of questions to help them figure out what's behind their emotions, then offers tips and exercises to work through them.
Though Reflectly is not really a sobriety app, its powerful emotion analysis and journaling tools make it a valuable app for anyone who wants to stay sober.
Daylio
A crucial part of sobriety is learning what feelings, situations, and habits trigger the urge to use substances. One of the best ways to accomplish this is mood tracking combined with journaling, which is exactly what the Daylio app is for. Daylio's specific focus is helping people understand how the activities of their daily life impact their moods. Each time users track a mood in Daylio, they're prompted to add tags for the activities associated with that mood. For example, if a user records a bad mood, then chooses the "family" tag, the entry reflects that they were in a bad mood because of something that happened with a family member.
The app's reporting features use all that data to visually display the associations between certain activities and particular moods. For example, the app's Mood Chart can show a user that the "friends" tag is most often associated with good moods, while the "work" tag is most often associated with a bad mood. Using this information, a sober person can identify that work is an emotional trigger for them and work with another sober person to come up with a plan for managing their feelings about work.
Daylio also offers a "goals" feature that allows users to set goals and track their progress toward those goals, including goals to break bad habits. Though it's not specifically a sobriety app, Daylio can help sober folks track their sober streaks and give them the emotional insight that's necessary for maintaining sobriety.
Insight Timer
One evidence-based way to achieve long-term sobriety is meditation, according to research published in "Counseling and Values." On average, people who incorporate meditation into their program of recovery stay sober longer. Researchers believe this is because meditation helps people manage the difficult emotions that can lead to relapse and gives them a sense of purpose that motivates them to stay sober.
Insight Timer is one of the most popular meditation apps currently available, perhaps because it's got something for everyone. For complete beginners, the app offers introduction courses to multiple meditation techniques and a massive library of beginner-friendly guided meditations. For meditation pros, there are lessons on new techniques, a customizable meditation timer, and literally thousands of advanced guided meditations.
The app also has a vibrant community of meditators from all over the world. Users can connect through the app's chat functions or join groups based on common interests like sobriety. Insight Timer even has a pretty good selection of sobriety-specific guided meditations. Check out this playlist of sobriety meditations to get started!
Calm
Meditation works best when practiced regularly, but anyone who's tried to fit meditation into their busy days knows how hard it can be. The Calm app is the solution to this common struggle. It isn't just a meditation app, though it does have an extensive library of guided meditations and meditation lessons. Calm actually helps users develop a meditation practice.
The Dailies feature encourages users to add meditation into their daily routines through different themed meditation series. Users choose the series that addresses a goal they want to work on, such as managing anxiety, lowering stress levels, or getting better sleep, then listen to a 10-minute meditation each day until the series is complete. The pre-selected meditations take all the guesswork out of finding a relevant meditation. For users who want to learn how to meditate or a new technique, the app also has courses that range from seven to 21 days that help establish a new meditation habit.
The app's Stats function also incentivizes daily meditation by displaying "streaks," the number of consecutive days that the user has meditated. To maintain the "streak," users have to meditate at least once a day.
The Calm app doesn't have as many sobriety-specific resources as Insight Timer, but it's a great app for sober folks who need a little help adding meditation to their daily routines.